(Video) Mike Douglas interview with Mark and Harrison

[caryn_b]

Several months ago I promised someone I'd get this footage uploaded somewhere. It's taken me so long that she may not even be in the fandom any more *hangs head in shame*. It's still a good interview though, and still worth making available. I'll probably cross-post this to mark_harrison because I think that's where I made my original promise.

Comments

[mark_fan]

Oh my Gosh! Can he be any cuter??? Thanks so much for putting this online! I just downloaded it and will be watching it in full throughout the day. I'll be getting back to you about it tomorrow.

From what I can see the quality of the big version is pretty decent, though!

[caryn_b]

No, I don't think he could get any cuter! I remember when I posted some screencaps and deciding Mark looked younger in this interview than he did in ANH :D Don't you just love that little smile at someone in the audience?

Glad the quality seems okay on the big one. I struggled with the conversion settings for this - I don't know why it was so complicated, but my first attempts had the sound totally out of sync with the picture. Weird - I've never had that before with anything.

[mark_fan]

He really does look a lot younger than he looked in the movie. He looks like a school boy. And I think it's quite obvious that it's one of his first really big interviews, 'cause he's quite nervous. I remember Mark mentioning once that Harrison used to take the lead in group interviews at the time, and you can see that. In fact, the entire SW trio chemistry is mirrored here. Mark is the very young guy, eager but a little uncertain, Harrison is all sure of himself and cool and Carrie is the witty one in between. She always does have an air of royalty about her.

And I love every smile of Mark's. ;) Lucky whoever was on the receiving end. *sighs*

So you use a program where you can actually do conversion settings? I use PowerProducer and I can just download it right as it is on the tape. I can't do anything to improve the quality. But since my VCR can play NTSC there is no problem with the conversion.

[caryn_b]

I agree - he does look like a schoolboy. Staggeringly young.

I love the way the trio's chemistry comes across here. It's such a short little interview but it manages to get right to the heart of the what makes the story work.

I didn't need to convert the VHS tape either (my VCR and DVD players play anything), but I'd set it to that for a previous conversion, where I did need to convert to incorporate something into a PAL source. I never thought to change it, and by the time I'd done it I didn't feel like re-doing it! The format conversion was perfect - it was the conversion to avi that gave me problems. I use VirtualDubMod (absolutely brilliant, and free) and Avisynth to edit and clean footage before putting it into a video-editing package.

[mark_fan]

It's sort of scary to imagine, though - if Lucas had just picked ONE other actor, if just ONE part of that trio had lacked, we'd never have had this SW experience. On the global picture, Luke, Han and Leia could only work together and only with Mark, Carrie and Harrison together.

I use VirtualDubMod (absolutely brilliant, and free) and Avisynth to edit and clean footage before putting it into a video-editing package.

What do you mean by cleaning footage? Can this free program actually improve the quality of video material that you've downloaded from a tape onto your computer??

[caryn_b]

It's sort of scary to imagine, though - if Lucas had just picked ONE other actor, if just ONE part of that trio had lacked, we'd never have had this SW experience.

It's a horrible thought. I've seen quite a few of those manips where people have pasted the faces of the other audition actors onto Mark, Harrison and Carrie and it just looks so wrong.

What do you mean by cleaning footage? Can this free program actually improve the quality of video material that you've downloaded from a tape onto your computer??

Yes, up to a point. If the original source is very bad, there's only so much that can be done (like with some of the bts footage on Empire of Dreams - I wish some of that had been shot more cleanly). VDubMod has its own basic editing functions, but combined with Avisynth it can do a heck of a lot more. I'm nowhere near competent enough to use it to its full potential, so I stick with the basics - brightness/contrast, colour, sharpening etc. - but all sorts of things can be done.

[mark_fan]

Ah, look how late I am again with those replies. I really need to catch up with LJ...

Which of the programs you use was the free one? I still have the ambition to get at least STARTED converting my Mark collection (I don't want to know for how long I've been saying I will *sighs*). It'd be nice if I could clean up some of the older material at least marginally. :)

[caryn_b]

I haven't caught up with LJ yet either - or anything else!

Both those programs I mentioned are free. If you want to go that route, the best place to get them is from the AMV site, and to download the whole package called the AMVapp. That'll give you (hopefully) everything you need to edit any type of video file. Their Guide is the most useful thing I have ever read on editing video. The site focuses on making amine music vids, but it's relevant to any video material. I don't think I could've made a vid without their guide, though it took me several reads to understand it (and I still don't, fully).

It's possible to edit the footage directly in VirtualDubMod too, without AviSynth but I'd still get the whole package because it has codecs too.

The link to get the AMVapp is on the Guide here. Instructions to installing it and checking it are also in the Guide.

[mark_fan]

Thanks a bunch! I saved the link. No idea when I'll get around to actually trying myself at this, but it's great to have this at the ready. :)